'Pacific Rim' does what it promises with a great sense of fun

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2013)

At first glance, 'Pacific Rim' may seem like Guillermo Del Toro selling out – it's his first blockbuster with a budget shy of $200 million, featuring giant robot battles. However, this film is no sell-out; it is clearly a Guillermo Del Toro movie, maybe not as much as 'Pan's Labyrinth' or 'Hellboy' were, but a Guillermo Del Toro movie nonetheless. It is possibly his most personal – he said one of the reasons he made was "to reconnect with his inner eleven year old", being inspired by all the Kaiju movies he marvelled as a child.
The film opens with a narration by the protagonist, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) chronicling how giant monsters (Kaijus) emerged from a portal in the Pacific Ocean and began to destroy cities. In response, mankind developed giant robots (called Jaegers) piloted by two people to destroy them. Now, with the threat worse then ever, Jaeger commander Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) calls Raleigh back into action so that they can "cancel the apocalypse".
'Pacific Rim' might not be as deep or nuanced as some of Del Toro's previous work, but as a giant monster movie it's faultless. You want giant robots hitting giant monsters? You got it. The action sequences here are some of, if not the best, the Mexican filmmaker has directed, they're easy to follow, beautifully staged, exciting and most importantly, great fun to watch. When hero Jaeger, Gypsy Danger, pummelled a Kaiju with a large ship, I couldn't help but smile. And that's one of the best things about the movie – it is pure fun from start to finish, making a nice change from the dark, brooding blockbusters that are around today. It has a light tone with some silly humour (courtesy of the zany scientist duo) and a lovely cameo from Del Toro regular Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau (continuing the film's line of brilliantly-named characters).
Sure, you could criticise the film for having one-dimensional characters, clunky dialogue and a thin plot, but when said film is so exuberantly fun, these things don't matter one bit. I was always engaged with the characters, rooting for them as they battled the Kaiju, despite the fact that they weren't exactly original creations. This is undoubtedly helped by the fact that performances are solid all-around, particularly Idris Elba who makes the often cheesy 'call-to-arms-speech' rousing. As pure entertainment, this is one of the best films of the year so far, it's a Kaiju movie that also looks and feels like a live- action anime film. Robots vs. monsters? 'Pacific Rim' does what it says on the tin and frankly, that's enough.